Principals

This process of writing has definitely been an emotional one; something I find ironic considering most think of research essays as cut and dry and without personal opinions. At the first initial mention of the phrase "research essay" there was an immediate grimace upon my face. I like being able to speak through my writing, and research essays are so stifling in the way of narrative, or so I had been taught to believe. And being in a class filled with fellow Honor's students, I knew I would soon be swamped with the brilliant and studious essays from my peers which sounded so much more intelligent than my own. Dismay.

As we began the first baby steps of forming a topic a couple of weeks ago, I found the interactive and self-driven ideas much more opening and free than ever before. Instead of being assigned a specific topic by my teacher from a predetermined list or choosing whichever controversy was splattered on the headlines, I was able to decide on something I was genuinely curious about and interested in. Why was I never able to do this before? It was pretty easy to think up the topic: why does McDonald's advertise at the Olympics? Sure, it was a little rough around the edges and needed some fine-tuning but it was a good place to start. Anticipation.

And as these last few weeks and classes have gone by, I've found that this process has it's own guidelines with which it operates, but they're not necessarily rules to abide by. They're helpful suggestions and tips, but are not meant to change how you write, but to better how you write. The Curious Researcher chapters and readings I find, both easy to relate to and a tool meant to open myself up to these new ways of thinking and writing which weren't options I had considered before. During my initial stages of research I've discovered a lot of useful and interesting information, enough almost to the point of it being overwhelming and I had too much to explore and talk about. There were numerous points and pieces with some being annotated for conference, and some taken note of for further exploration. Awe.

In my conference with Dr. Ballenger last week, I think the point of revelation for me was that I had overlooked one of the most basic aspects of my inquiry question (which had been altered at this point), and I was shocked that even with all this information I had gathered, I had managed to miss a key foundation piece in my research. I was so overwhelmed with the multitude of information about my topic that I needed a calm voice of reason to tell me to stop what I was doing, which was moving on to all these various perspectives and ideas, and work from the base up. Like the Where's Waldo pictures, I think it's easy for us to get caught up with all the colors and happenings and trying to be the first to spot the elusive traveler, that we forget to stop and remember, oh, Waldo wears a red hat, oh, Waldo wears a red striped shirt, and all the characteristics which set Waldo apart from his surroundings. We can loose ourselves in the sea of exploration until a nice tenure college professor sidles up in his little kayak of wise words and independent perspective and fishes you out and brings you back to reality. Needless to say, I was a bit embarrassed by my misstep.

And if you've stayed with me for this long, kudos to you kind reader. To summarize, this process of sculpting research essays has been eye-opening to say the least. It's something I'm not quite used to yet, but the more I experience it, the more I like it.